A Tribute to Dead Friends
by MissMCQueen
Summary: Kakashi suffers a blow to a head which causes amnesia. He is awoken by his supposedly dead friend Obito, who to his surprise has now become an internationally wanted criminal. One shot about the relationship between Kakashi and Obito.


Hello and welcome to my first fanfic for a very very very long time. It was inspired by reading the latest Naruto chapters. Obito is now my favorite character. I really like guys who are good, then evil, then good (because you know it's going to end that way) I really like this relationship between Obito and Kakashi, it makes me think about what I would do if I assumed someone who was long dead suddenly started walking around once more.

This story takes place a few years later while Obito is on the run from the law.

#################**A tribute to deceased friends**################

"Hey Kakashi what are you doing. You can't lie around here all day!"

_Who... Who is that?_

Kakashi felt nothing but pain and everything before him was a blur. He blinked and tried to clear his head, but the world in front of him swirled. Suddenly everything came back into focus and he found himself staring up at a rock ceiling, possibly a cave. His eyes darted back and forth in an attempt to understand his new situation, until they landed on an unknown stranger. Half his face was covered by a mass of hair, and the other half was maimed by spiral shaped scarring. _Maybe a victim of the war?_He thought. The hair reminded him of Sasuke.

With a groan Kakashi sat himself up. The right side of his head was pounding and he raised his hand up to touch it. _Only hair, that was good, no blood_. The stranger continued to stare at him with more irritation than concern. The man seemed to know him, but Kakashi didn't known anyone with a busted face.

"Who are you?" Kakashi groaned.

"What do you mean,_ who are you? _It's me Obito."

_Obito? _No, that couldn't be right, Obito was dead lying under half a tone of rock. He certainly wasn't alive staring at him like he had the chance to grow up and live. Who was this ninja and why was he messing with him?"

"No, you can't be Obito."

"What are you talking about? Of course I'm Obito."

"Prove it!" Kakashi knew he had him now, there was no way this strange guy could fool him.

The stranger sighed and moved the rest of his hair away from the other side of his face to unveil his smooth skin and very Obito looking features, complete with missing eye.

"Obito! No it can't be. But if you're here it must mean..." This was finally it wasn't it? Kakashi must have messed up and died. He was finally meeting his old friend in the afterlife.

He reached out and grabbed a handful of Obito's long hair and pulled. The other guy cried out in pain before slapping Kakashi in the face. "What are you doing! You're not dead yet! But if you continue on like this..."

_No...No..It couldn't be...Obito..Alive..._

Kakashi felt numb. How has he missed this. How had his seemingly dead friend walked away from the incident, and he Kakashi had failed to notice?

"I don't get it, how can you be alive? How did you survive?"

"You really don't remember do you?" said Obito while poking Kakashi's head. He hit upon the sore part and Kakashi flinched away in pain. "Hmmm, it must have hit you harder than I expected."

"What! What hit me?"

"Let's not worry about the details of the alarm system, what's the last thing you remember?"

"I remember being ordered on a mission to receive Sasuke then," his memory became fuzzy, he wasn't sure if they succeeded or failed. "I think he got away."

"So only up until then _huh?_That was a while ago," Obito sighed and leaned up against the wall. "Today just keeps getting better and better. Geez, this is what you get for trespassing into another guy's home."

Kakashi continued to stare like Obito was an illusion that could disappear at any moment. For over a decade he had lamented over his friends death. That he was the one at fault, that he had been too selfish to the point of costing his friends their lives. He had spent years anguishing over the lost opportunity to speak to his friend once more, and now here he was, in the flesh, staring at Kakashi like he was a mad man. Given his current situation it wouldn't have shocked him if he had gone insane.

"I don't understand, how did you survive? How can you be alive?" W_hen you were crushed, had your eye ripped out, and then crushed again._

Obito was silent. "We already went through this," he snapped. "I don't feel like repeating myself again, stupid Kakashi."

_Stupid Kakashi, stupid Kakashi, stupid Kakashi._Kakashi suddenly felt like he was a gennin once more watching Obito kick the crap out of a stuffed training doll. Looking at him was enough to bring back memories he thought he had forgotten. The way that Obito would constantly rub his eyes, the way his eyes would bulge when he was angry, the way his constant mistakes and disrespect for the rules used to piss him off.

If Obito was really alive what was going to jump out next? Were Rin and his deceased teacher going to suddenly walk through the door. That reminded him, there was something he had always wanted to explain to Obito.

"Obito, about Rin-"

"Forget it!" he snapped and the atmosphere turned even colder. "I don't want to talk about it, especially not to you, why are you even here?!"

_That's because..._Kakashi felt like there was an answer lurking in the back of his mind, but no words sprang forth

"I, I," still nothing. _How am I supposed to cope with this situation? _He thought.

"You shouldn't be here, what would happen if that student of yours found out what you were up to?"

"Student? Sasuke?" This looked like something that the lone Uchiha avenger would get angsty about.

"No the one who thinks they're the new Messiah."

"Sakura?"

"Just get out!"

Kakashi wanted to argue the point. He still had so many questions and he wasn't going to bulge until he had the answers. But before he could even open his mouth as to interrogate Obito as to why he was still walking and breathing, he found himself being caught up into a vortex. The entire world spun and he felt like puking until he found himself lying on the ground staring up at the sky and Obito's face.

"Konoha, is that way!" he said pointing somewhere off in the distance. "I think your Ninja skills are good enough to find your own way back.

#######################

"So you really don't remember anything?" Said Naruto.

"No," said Kakashi while gazing around the office of the Hokage tower. Konoha was a lot different from what he remembered, like someone had decided to remodel the village. He also didn't expect to return and find Naruto running the place.

Naruto continued to stare at him critically like he didn't believe him. Kakashi thought it should have been the other way around. Since when did his loud mouth student have the potential to become Hokage? He was certain that required dedication and wit. Didn't anyone realize how quickly the village could go to hell if they left Naruto in charge?

Naruto looked to be in his early twenties, which meant five of six years must have passed without him knowing it. That meant he had a whole five years to catch up on. He tried asking Naruto for help, but instead Kakashi was being interrogated about the whereabouts of a certain Uchiha Obito. He felt tempted to spill his guts and tell the Hokage Obito was hiding out in a cave five kilometers east, but he wasn't prepared to sell out Obito before he knew the situation.

Naruto narrowed his eyes in suspicion, and Kakashi swore it was his teacher staring at him before giving a lecture. Minato's words came floating into his mind. _You shouldn't use that jutsu again Kakashi, you can't see the enemy's counter attack._

Sakura hadn't changed much since he saw her last. She examined his head, running her finger over the bruise. "You should give him a break, it looks like he's telling the truth."

"That doesn't mean that he's not faking," said Naruto.

"Naruto! This is a serious injury, he could have brain damage."

"_Hmm." _Naruto looked like he wanted to argue, but Sakura sent him a glare and his mouth clamped up. "Fine! Send him to the hospital!"

"_Geez_," he heard Sakura mutter under her breath as she smoothed his hair neatly back into place. "Sensei can you wait outside, I'll take you there soon," she led him outside the room and closed the giant oak door behind her.

Sakura must have assumed that it was impossible to hear anything though the thick walls and door. She'd obviously forgotten that he specialized in dogs and therefore acquired their hearing.

"What's with you today Naruto?" She asked.

"He knows something, I can sense it."

"Because you would do the same if it were Sasuke?"

"Sasuke isn't the issue here."

"You should try and be more sympathetic, you should know better than anyone what Sensei is going through right now."

"His personal issues pail in comparison to the safety of the ninja world."

"Just give him a break! You aren't going to get anything out of him until his memory comes back."

"Fine I get it! We'll do things your way, just hurry up and fix him already!"

#######################

Kakashi awoke the next morning to find the hospital ceiling greeting him back. The events of the past few days had been so unbelievable that he expected to wake up and discover it was all a dream. Unfortunately only cruel reality faced him.

_So Obito was alive and Naruto was prepared to move mountains to find him. What happened within the last five years?_

On the positive side he was beginning to remember something. He was pretty certain he ate ramen for lunch yesterday, but after that everything was still fuzzy. He was hoping that it would all suddenly come back to him, but it was slowly filtering through in bits and pieces. Sakura said that if he was lucky he might even have his memories back by the end of the week.

He got up to wash his face, and paused to stare at his face in the mirror, taking in his features which had aged another five years. He didn't think he looked that different. He lifted up his hiyate and took a look at the sharingan which was hidden underneath. Half of him expected it not to be there, but it was still completely untouched as the day he last saw it. If Obito really wanted to hurt him he would have taken it back right?

He was certain that there was a reason why he intruded on Obito. He could still feel the reason lurking away in the back of his mind, nibbling away at his consciousness. There were so many things that he never had the chance to say. He'd been too late for his teacher and Rin, but somehow the heavens had granted him a second chance concerning Obito.

Kakashi sighed and watched them wheel another old man back into their room. Naruto's new strategy must have been to bore the truth out of him, because no one in his room was under the age of sixty. He was subjected to lectures of the good old days when they used to have teeth.

When the subject of urinary problems arose, Kakashi decided he needed to flee to the safety of the hallway. He wondered the bleach disinfected halls searching for anything to kill time, until his eyes landed on a giant poster pinned to the center of the noticeboard. He glazed over it without paying much attention until the meaning behind the words finally dawned on him.

"No it can't be," he muttered. He read over it a second time, then a third, and a fourth. When he was certain his tired mind wasn't playing tricks, he firmly grabbed a corner and ripped the poster from the wall.

There was a certain Uchiha he needed to see.

#####################

"You're an international criminal!" He yelled as he threw the poster down in Obito's face.

The Uchiha was currently bent over a desk fashioned of wood, with only a single candle to illuminate the book he was reading. He looked up and scanned his eyes over the paper. "_Uchiha Obito, wanted dead or alive 10,000 Ryo_," he laughed. "Really only that much, the lightning country must still be bankrupt after the war."

"This isn't something to laugh about, most of the ninja world wants you dead!"

"And they can do so if they want to," he said ripping the paper in two. "People wanting you dead, being dead. There really isn't much of a difference."

"You used to care about Konoha!"

"And I certain people used to be alive, things change, everything has changed."

_He must be talking about Rin._

Kakashi went silent and hung his head in shame. It was all his fault wasn't it? He had failed his promise to look after Rin, and now Obito was an angry missing nin running around the countryside causing problems.

Obito must have regretted his words, and let out an exasperated sigh. "Kakashi, you may not remember but I'm not the same person I was back then, a lot has happened over the years. I used to believe in a fantasy world where everything went the way you wanted and even the dead would come back to life. I ignored reality and did terrible things because I believed I could fix it all later. But now that fantasy is gone and I have to find my own way to live with all the things I've done. I'm sorry Kakashi but those who abandon their friends maybe lower than trash, and those who kill their friends are off the trash scale. I don't think you should hang around some one like me. You should go back to your nice warm village and bratty Hokage, and try to move on with your life."

Kakashi stared at the adult standing before him and tried to connect him to the boy who once bragged about becoming an awesome ninja. Memories began floating back to the surface. Obito who helped the elderly carry their shopping. Obito who had refused to honor the mission over the life of his friends. Obito who was crushed trying to save him. Obito who gave him the Sharingan which made him famous throughout the Ninja world. Obito who had taught him what it really meant to be a person. He didn't have to think any further because his mind was already made up.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can give up that easily," said Kakashi.

"Why what's your problem, why are you willing to go so far for someone like me?"

"Because," suddenly the words that he had wanted to say over a decade ago (but never got the chance) sprang to mind. He finally remembered what he had come to say.

"_Because you're my friend Obito_."

#####

Hi I hope you enjoyed my little one-shot. I wrote it to pass the time.


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